“Our job, as actors, is not to tell the audience how interesting we are, but to entertain them with our films.”

As an actor, you think you know your craft, you know the conflicts in your character, but often you don’t.

I never think about what people will think when they watch me on screen.

I am not bothered with whether my characters are conventional or not. Because I am not in this for the designer labels and the autographs.

I think people generally are lost, as they keep thinking about what is going to happen and what they have done. They are not alive anymore. The art of listening is missing. In their head, they are doing something else.

We should never forget the inevitable, as we will lose everything eventually. So, why fret over any kind of security? The idea is to just fly and experience it all while it lasts.

I am learning the importance of living in the moment.

Money was a big differentiator when I was growing up, but I made sure it doesn’t stay that way.

I am not saying that those who crave for conventional stardom are wrong in their aspirations. But that’s not what I want.

I am not lost. I am very much alive.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the best actor because his choice of roles are so diametrically opposite from each other, and he pulls it off almost every time so convincingly.

I experienced a lot of things while I was working with Dibakar Banerjee.

I love layering with great fitting jackets.

It’s cruel to compare two actors working with two different filmmakers on two different characters.

Everybody is in a hurry to decode you in a certain way, and then they expect you to adhere to their definition. How can they possibly do that when you yourself are finding it hard to discover yourself?

When I am in front of the camera or on stage, I am not me.

The best thing is to accept the circumstances, not take them personally, deal with them, stop complaining, and give everything your best.

Cinema is changing every week, and multiplex audiences are demanding every week.

I had a very easy time loving an audience. But when it’s one-on-one with somebody, all I wanted to do was run away, because maybe they’re going to want something from me I can’t give, or they’re going to hurt me.

I’m the audience’s representative on earth.

It’s always an inner wish of every actor to reach out to maximum audiences.

I’m not the best audience for that because I’m not a great science-fiction fan. I just never got off on space ships and space costumes, things like that.

If I’m selling, I want them all selling in the audience. If I’m coming back, I want them all coming back. If I’m bleeding, I want them bleeding. If I win, they win. If I lose, they lose.

It’s the actors who are prepared to make fools of themselves who are usually the ones who come to mean something to the audience.

Documentaries are a powerful and effective way of bridging the gap between worlds, breaking through to new audiences that wouldn’t otherwise be engaged – in essence, not preaching to the choir.